“What brands and individuals alike are less enthusiastic to talk about is how having a noncompliant body — whether it’s fat, nonwhite, trans, disabled, or some combination thereof — impacts someone’s life, how those external conditions affect someone’s sense of self-worth, and how corporate interests have long benefited from and upheld the structural forces that create inequality.

There’s nothing an ad can (or intends to) do to ameliorate any of the actual problems that harm people’s self-perception, but that doesn’t stop brands from taking enormous credit for their newfound surface-level wokeness. There’s no radicalism in the sales department.”

“Which is what makes the most notable thing about this morning’s interview the fact that Bill Clinton seemed to be shocked that he would be asked about his behavior in light of #MeToo. How is that possible?

The answer is that a major aspect of the reckoning has been the realization that a culture in which harassment and sexual power abuse are ubiquitous is also one in which women are always asked to react to men’s behavior, and then always evaluated on their reactions, while men, until recently, rarely are called upon to account for themselves.”